St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Burlingame

At St. Paul’s next service of Choral Evensong, the newly commissioned anthem, On the Highway, will be premiered by the Choir of St. Paul’s.  Composer Margaret Burk has set a poem by St. Paul’s parishioner Mia Ayumi Malhotra, creating a gorgeous new anthem.  Early in its history, the church was known as “St. Paul’s on the Highway,” connecting the church’s location on El Camino Real to the saint’s conversion on the road to Damascus.  Mia writes:   “On the Highway is inspired by the architecture and rich musical tradition of the church of St. Paul’s . . . and draws from the rich experience of singing Evensong with the Choir of St. Paul’s, both at home in Burlingame and abroad during the choir’s Wells Cathedral residency in July 2022.” At the reception following,  all will have opportunity to meet poet Mia Malhotra and composer Maggie Burk, traveling from Wisconsin for the premiere.   #SuperbOwlEvensong

Mia Ayumi Malhotra is a poet and creative writing instructor, and her published works include Notes from the Birth Year, winner of the Bateau Press BOOM Chapbook Contest, and Isako Isako, a California Book Award finalist and winner of the Alice James Award, the Nautilus Gold Award, a National Indie Excellence Award, and a Maine Literary Award. She holds degrees in creative writing from Stanford University and the University of Washington, and her work has appeared widely in literary journals and anthologies. Her poems have been recognized internationally with the Hawker Prize for Southeast Asian Poetry and the Singapore Poetry Prize, and she is a founding editor of Lantern Review: A Journal of Asian American Poetry. Mia and her family have been joyful members of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church since 2017. 

Margaret (Maggie) Burk is a conductor, composer, and classical vocalist dedicated to the transformative power of choral music. She currently holds the post of Assistant Professor/Director of Choral Activities at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where she teaches coursework in music education and conducting and directs the award-winning Carthage Choir. Her compositions are published by Hal Leonard and Selah Music Publishing and have been performed throughout the United States and United Kingdom. She holds degrees from the University of Michigan (DMA), Yale University (MM), and St. Olaf College (BM).   Margaret (Maggie) Burk is well known to the Choir of St. Paul’s for her choral setting of the traditional prayers for Evensong, Preces and Responses, from which text is quoted in the poem.  Maggie Burk’s Preces were sung for the six services of Evensong while the choir was in residency at Wells Cathedral in July 2022, and will be sung again at the February 12th Evensong.    The commission of this new anthem by Maggie Burk was made possible by the Marcia McCowin Estate Fund.

When: Sunday, February 12 at 4pm

Where: St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 415 El Camino Real, Burlingame
Cost: free-will donation
Contact: smatthews@stpaulsburlingame.org
Link: www.stpaulsburlingame.org
FB event page: (https://fb.me/e/3h7dPTHKe)